This is an update about a little-known restoration in the Bay Area.

The Ocean Shore Railroad was a short-lived attempt to connect San Francisco and Santa Cruz via the Pacific coast. Never completed, it quit in 1920 and the passenger cars were sold to other railroads or dismantled, but one lone car was found decaying on a property in Sebastopol. It was identified as car 1409, one of five built in 1909 just for the OSRR by the W.L. Holman Company. When notified of its discovery, members of the Pacifica Historical Society drove up to verify its origins and convinced the property owned to donate it to the Society. Thus began a twenty-year effort to restore the car and return it to its original look so that its role in history will be remembered.

The car was placed on a farm, then moved next to Pacifica’s sewage treatment plant, then beside a taqueria, and finally next to the Coastside Museum and its permanent home. All during these years, the Society volunteers and paid craftsmen would work on the car when time and money allowed. The money came from monthly raffle sales and donations. So far, the outside of the car and its roof has been restored, and carpenters are now working on the floors and interior woodwork. Currently the Society is in the process of soliciting funds for the trucks, rails, and ties so the car has a permanent foundation on which to rest.

Eventually the Society hopes to put in lights, seats, and panels inside so that visitors can see what it was like to travel by rail along the coast in the 1910s. There will be informational panels about the fares, time schedules, and maps of the route. And ultimately a shelter in the form of a station stop to protect the car from the elements. This would be the only small railroad museum on the San Mateo County coast.

See https://pacificahistory.org/ocean-shore-r-r

Hmmm...This wooden passenger car was found in Sebastopol, California, a town that is located very close to Point Reyes. Port Reyes used a very similar wood passenger car as the town's first library beginning in 1931. One account I've read says that the Point Reyes Library car came from the Northwestern Pacific RR, but made no mention of the Ocean Shore RR.

I wonder if the Sebastopol car #1409 could have also been the same car that was used as the Point Reyes Library?

I have a great newspaper press photo from the 1930s that specifically shows the Point Reyes car used as the library, but have no current-day photos that clearly show the Sebastopol car with no tarps covering it. I need to compare the window placement, but have a better selection of 94-year-old photos than modern-day photos of this car (or, these cars).

Thank you, have fun and Be Safe.

John B.

The Ocean Shore car being restored in Pacifica is not the same carbody from Point Reyes. That car was moved to Duncan Mills, CA and restored at a museum/RV/campground. It was a former North Shore # 101 (not CNS&M) later Northwestern Pacific coach used on their third rail electric operation. Here are the photos I took at Point Reyes in 1976; Duncan Mills in 1990.

Don Marenzi

Thank you so much, Don, for providing that detailed information and sharing your great photos of the wood passenger car that had been in Point Reyes. For me, this longtime mystery about the Point Reyes Library car is now solved. Be Safe.

John B.

According to the Pacifica Historical Society"

"Car 1409 was discovered in 2004, in a Sebastopol backyard by restoration expert Jeff Millerick. Kristina and I met Jeff to identify the remnants of the “tarnished jewel.” Wow! It was a 1909 WL Holman Co. –built coach from the old Ocean Shore Railway. Though in sad shape, it was a super candidate for restoration because it was one of only five cars of this type ever built. To save the old beauty would require a special person and a dedicated group, Kathleen Manning, Scott Lindner, et al., to put the “aged starlet” back on track. A single call to Kathleen started the 1409’s wheels rolling."

The Western Railway Museum owns several pairs of Ocean Shore Interurban trucks by Baldwin, if you want to know what went under that Ocean Shore #1409.

Perhaps they might give a couple sections of rail and some ties for the car body to
be displayed on.

I am glad to hear that some work is still going on with the body!

Ted Miles, WRM Member